Live Blog — August 12 Training Camp, Morning Practice

Gooooooood morning Dolfans, and welcome to another exciting edition of the live practice blog!

A cloudless 83 degrees right now in Davie with a heat index of 91. Make sure to drink plenty of bottled water as you read the blog this morning.

Today we will bring you Day 2 of the Chad Pennington Era, as well as updates and insight on the position battles going on all over the field.

I’m interested to see how many reps John Beck and Josh McCown get today in 11-on-11 drills. Yesterday, they combined for four throws. Pennington and Chad Henne, meanwhile, combined for 36. Advantage: Chad.

Feel free to post any comments or questions, and I’ll try to address the good ones after practice ends around 11 a.m.

Enjoy the show!

UPDATE: Kicker Jay Feely called into Joe Rose’s morning show today on WQAM and told Joe that he has been cut this morning. Edgar Thompson will have more on this shortly. Rookie Dan Carpenter is now your kicker.

Edgar here. Yes, It’s true. Jay has been cut following a season in which he set a team record for field-goal percentage, hitting 21 of 23 kicks (91.3 percent).

He doesn’t fit into the team’s long-term plans and said several teams are interested in him.

Jay was a class act from Day 1 and was among the only players who spoke to the media during last year’s 1-15 nightmare season.

It will be interesting to see undrafted rookie Dan Carpenter standing over a 43-yard field goal in Week 6 with the game on the line. The Dolphins might wish they had Feely back then.

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9:36

It’s true, Feely has been cut. Not that I don’t believe Edgar, just that the team’s PR staff confirmed it.

Not much for you yet in terms of the 78 guys who are here today:

– Vonnie Holliday (hamstring), Michael Lehan (ankle), Joey Porter (back) and Charlie Anderson (hamstring) are still not practicing. They are all riding the bike.

– Donald Thomas is still a First Teamer. I keep waiting for him to be bumped down, but it looks like it may not happen.

– Everyone is doing positional drills. The wide receivers are doing tight one-on-one stuff to work on getting separation in man coverage. Tony Sparano specifically mentioned this yesterday as an area to improve.

Be back soon.

9:59

A few hot reads for you:

– OL and DL are doing some one-on-one type of stuff, and the quarterbacks are working with one receiver, against one cornerback.

– Once again, Pennington and Henne are getting most of the reps.

– Pennington throws a real nice ball on a slant pass. I see him complete four in a row, putting the ball exactly where it needs to be.

– Henne does well, too, but his final throw is an interception to Will Allen. The INT is probably Ted Ginn’s fault, he didn’t run a crisp route, and Allen was able to undercut him for the INT.

11-on-11 drills

– It’s pretty much all running plays. Ronnie, Ricky and Cobbs working on counters, sweeps, bellies, etc. No tackling, so it’s hard to evaluate the running backs or OLs.

– What is telling, though, is which quarterbacks are taking the snaps. Pennington gets most of them, and Henne watches while standing next to quarterbacks coach David Lee. When it’s Henne’s turn, Pennington stands next to Lee. Meanwhile, Josh McCown and John Beck are on the other sideline, standing next to quality control coach Steve Bush. Their body language suggests they know they’re not getting many reps in practice.

– Matt Roth and Quentin Moses are lining up as the OLBs with Vonnie, Porter and Charlie Anderson out with injury.

– Special teams drills. Dan Carpenter hits all three field goals, each from 40-plus. Then they do a fake field goal and a field goal return, with Ted Ginn back deep.

– As I walk inside, they break out into kickoff drills. Sparano mentioned yesterday how unpleased he was with the special teams unit last Saturday against the Bucs. I’m sure special teams is a point of emphasis this week.

That’s it for now. More in a bit.

10:45

Last update of the morning. Practice went about 1:45 today. Forget about the players, I’m dripping with sweat.

They start with 11-on-11 drills.

– Pennington throws a nice skinny post to Hagan, who goes up high for the catch. Pennington can put the ball just where it needs to be.

– And then Quentin Moses is chewed out by a coach for not beating Ikechuku Ndukwe.

Back to 11-on-11, Red Zone drills.

– Pennington goes first, of course. Merling and Langford are with the First Team.

– A couple runs by Ronnie, mixed in with a check-down to Reagan Mauia and an incomplete pass to Martin over the middle (pass interference on Yeremiah Bell?).

– A couple draw plays to Ricky up the middle, and then a beautiful lob to David Martin in the corner of the end zone for a touchdown. An even nicer catch by Martin, who goes up and gets it over Courtney Bryan.

– Henne’s in now. First pass is out of bounds in the end zone, over Ted Ginn.

– A screen to Armstrong is followed with a batted pass by Rod Wright.

– Final two plays of the day: First Henne feels the pressure, scrambles up the middle and gets into the end zone. Then he throws a wobbly slant pass to Ginn, but he catches it anyway for the touchdown. Ending on a positive note.

UPDATE: Got a few final numbers from the two quarterbacks:

Pennington: Took 33 snaps in team drills, and completed 5 of 9 passes. Then completed 6 of 7 in 7-on-7 drills.

Henne: 25 snaps in team drills, and completed 4-of-8 passes. Went 3 for 5 in 7-on-7 drills.

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That’s all she wrote. Interesting day, to say the least. McCown and Beck were glorified clipboard holders today.

Still a little shocked that Jay Feely is gone. Another example of the Dolphins’ washing their hands of the Cam Cameron era.

Sparano talks at 12:30. Tune in later this afternoon for updates. Next practice blog starts at 5 p.m.